Am I being thick or is ebay too good to be true?

[Trevor Hickson]

Hi guys;

While talking to friends recently, the subject came up of old Yamaha DX7/21/27 synths which I knew from the 80's and I wondered if you can still pick them up anywhere... I looked at ebay..

While hunting through, I found a yamaha SO3 listed for 1p (yes.. one penny) and a Korg workstation at the price of 99p. I almost jumped at both but I smell a rat...

Not knowing either instrument, the thought occurred that they could be minisynths with microkeys and a preset bank of 64 fixed sounds as seen on the casio toy instruments but checks on the manufacturers' websites suggested they were full function, poly, multitimbral all singing and dancing machines with tea making facilities!

So my question is:
CAN THIS BE TRUE? Or is there some catch such as "yes it's a penny.. per month for the next 99 years!!! Both instruments are listed as fully working, although showing some cosmetic wear and tear for the age...

Your thoughts?

Trev
(PS: Korg is no longer listed, but yamaha still there for a penny +£20 postage)

[modulator_esp]

the penny will be the minimum opening bid, you'd only get it for that if no one else bid and there was no reserve price set

[Uncle Krunkus]

I've noticed that some people set a reserve and put the starting bid on $0.05 kind of thing. They won't sell if the reserve is not met, but putting it super low to start with gets people interested. Just 1 bid at a low price will get a whole load of other people interested, and bidding, who would have otherwise passed it over if it were starting at $85.
And getting someone interested is exactly what this tactic seems to have done in this case!
Sometimes they will dissappear again if no-one puts a first bid within a day or so. The vendor has basically decided there's not even enough interest to keep it going.
I bet if you offer $2 there will be a sudden interest, because all these people will want to be in the hunt for the reserve. "There's no way I'm letting him get it for $30!" is the kind of thing going on in their heads.

[v-un-v]

I won a Yamaha DX27 on ebay for £15, if that's any use? Although the pots are a tad crackly, it works really well.

[patrickvf1976]

I won a Yamaha CS5 for less than $100 that way, but that was years ago. Now they go for $500+. The thing was it had some minor issues with some of the switches that needed some convincing to make them work, but it was still a major steal. Shouldn't have sold it. I miss it very much now.

[jksuperstar]

When selling things on ebay, they charge you for
a.) a higher start bid
b.) a reserve price

So, a seller has an incentive to keep the reserve low, and the start bid low. Otherwise, you have to cough up $$ to ebay whether the item sells or not.

[Trevor Hickson]

I never knew that side of things superstar... I guess then if it's something only taking up house space and you want to get rid of it, no sense in hiking the price with reserfves etc.... let the buyers do the hiking!

Alas, as I'm out of work I can't afford to spend huge amounts... if I could have picked it up for the price of a pint I would, but it went for £72 in the end!

I'll keep looking for the next bargain now!

Trev

[v-un-v]

Ebay are complete f***tards when it comes to selling. They're a complete ripoff, and I'm rapidly getting sick of their money grabbing service.

I'll continue to buy from ebay, but from now onwards, never sell anything anymore.

[opg]

Also, check the shipping charge if there is no reserve. Some sellers will pad in the minimum amount they would accept for the item into the shipping in case there are only 1 or 2 bids. Some sellers are ballsy enough to make the initial bid amount and the shipping amount the same. This probably happens more with smaller equipment and circuit-bending toys than a 8 bazillion ton synth that has to be shipped in a wooden crate like the Ark of the Convenant